On a roll with the clowny spoOp. ;o} Enjoy!

If you'd like to know what I listen to while I write this, check out the music box version of "Quiet Slumber" on YouTube.


Ch. 4, Even Naughtier

The sweet, black smoke was still lingering unnaturally along the floor, marking the place where Laughing Jack had disappeared, when Ruby snatched up her cellphone. She punched a number into it quickly, simultaneously struggling into a pair of jeans she'd found on the floor. Her thigh throbbed where Jack's claws had cut her.

The call went to voicemail, and Ruby wailed a mournful "Damn it!" She grabbed up her tennis shoes and coat, redialing the same number. Tuscaloosa was nearly an hour's drive, and maybe Jack was already there, but she would go anyway. She would call the twins' aunt until she answered, and tell her to stay with them. The clown might not show if she were around, the same way he'd seemed to stay hidden around Ruby. If he did show…

Ruby took a long knife from the kitchen and hid it inside her coat on the way out. It was no gun, but it was better than nothing.


The twins' aunt, Melanie, lived on the outskirts of Tuscaloosa in an old, Dutch colonial with peeling paint. Ruby had been there a few times to drop off and pick up the twins for slumber parties; Melanie had two daughters of her own. Emmy, the younger one, was about Zach and Zeke's age. Lauren was thirteen or so, and often babysat while Melanie was at work.

Ruby dearly hoped that wasn't the case today.

Ploughing down the dirt road to old house, Ruby caught a chug hole that rocked the car and banged her into the door. All of the nerves along her side lit up with the rough contact, and her skin began to ache like a bruise being pressed. She screamed in frustration and pain, but didn't take her foot off of the accelerator. Whatever the clown had down to her, its effects was lingering. If she moved too quickly, her head spun; if she banged into something, the wretched aching would start. Even bright light was unbearable. When she'd been on the highway earlier, the sun had come out from behind the clouds; the light made her vision spot, and she'd had to open her window and puke going nearly eighty.

Melanie's beater of a van was parked beside the house when Ruby roared up to it. She slammed the brakes, crying out when the force of the stop struck a pressure behind her eyes and flared into an ache. She dry heaved at the pain, then sat as still as she could manage while the throbbing slowly faded. The car rumbled in its idle, and Ruby carefully shifted it into park.

Tap tap.

Ruby let out a shrill sound and jerked away from the car's window.

"Hey!" A familiar face was pressed near the window, its sparse brows furrowed. "You okay?"

Ruby gritted her teeth against the fresh pulsing that had sprung up in her elbow; she'd whacked it hard against the gear stick. She forced herself to open the window, fighting the urge to retch again.

Melanie frowned down at her. Her hair was wrapped in a towel, and she wasn't wearing any makeup. A Wal-Mart name tag poked out of her unbuttoned coat.

"Hey," she said. "I didn't know you were comin' over."

Ruby unbuckled her seat belt and turned the car off. She opened the door, and Melanie stepped back.

"You sick?" she said cautiously, moving another step back.

Ruby leaned against the car, taking deep, shuddering breaths. Her eyes went to the house, and she saw a little girl with a bowl cut standing on the porch. It was Emmy, and Zach and Zeke were standing behind her, peering out the screen door.

The relief that flooded through her almost buckled her knees.

"Sorry," she finally said to Melanie, who was eyeing her suspiciously now. "No, I'm not. I just got really car sick all of the sudden. I, uh… came to check on the boys. I tried to call. My phone was… having trouble."

"What happened to your face?"

Ruby frowned in confusion. She turned to the car and looked at her reflection in the driver's window. There was a dark bruise on her left cheek, where Jack had struck her.

"Oh," she said. She touched the spot gingerly. "I hit a chug hole earlier. Threw me into the door."

Melanie looked up at the children on the porch, then back at her. She seemed skeptical. "Well," she said. "Come on in, I guess." Understanding how strange all of this probably seemed, Ruby tried to put on a disarming smile as they walked toward the house.

"Thanks," she said. "Look, I'm sorry if you're busy. I just haven't seen the boys since yest- in a little while," she quickly corrected herself. "My phone wouldn't work, and I got worried."

"Could'a used the house phone," Melanie said, sounding somewhat vexed. "I gotta go to work in an hour."

Ruby was about to provide some sort of lie about the power being out, but jumped on Melanie's last statement. "Well, that's perfect! I can watch the kids." Melanie gave her a sour look.

"I won't be back 'til four," she said. "You can stay that long?" They started up the porch steps, and Emmy held the screen door open for them. Zach and Zeke had disappeared.

"That's fine," Ruby said, trying to peer over Melanie's shoulder and into the house. "I'd rather not stay at my house anyway."

"Thank you, baby," Melanie said to the girl. Emmy scuttled off, and Melanie closed the door. "I wouldn't want to stay at that old house by myself either," she said to Ruby. "Too big. Gives me the creeps."

Ruby followed Melanie to the cluttered little kitchen, peeking into the living room as they passed it. Emmy and the twins were sitting in a pillow fort and watching cartoons. None of them looked up at her.

"Coffee?" Melanie offered shortly, and Ruby graciously accepted. Despite having been awake for such a short while, she was exhausted. Staying alert toward the end of her nerve-shredding drive to Tuscaloosa had even been a challenge; it was as though something were sapping her energy, and Ruby didn't know if that was just an effect of whatever the clown had done to her, or something else. She didn't care to dwell on it.

"Thanks," she said, taking a stained mug from Melanie. They sat down at the craft-crowded dining table, both holding their mugs for lack of surface space.

"So." Melanie poured some creamer into her mug and stirred it. "What exactly happened? The cops couldn't tell me anything, and the kids won't talk."

Ruby's mug stopped halfway to her lips. She looked at Melanie, who was deeply focused on stirring her creamer, and wondered what she could say that wouldn't sound crazy.

"Somebody broke in."

Melanie put the creamer down and looked at her. "Yeah?

"Yeah," Ruby said. She took a sip of her coffee; it burned her tongue and left a tingling patch on the tip. She winced at the ache that followed.

"What, that's it? Come on, what happened?" Melanie pushed. "I'm feedin' two extra kids 'cuz of this. What happened?"

"A guy broke in," Ruby said again, refusing to give any more detail. She didn't know how much Melanie had truly gathered from the police. "I called the cops. They couldn't find him."

"Huh," Melanie said. She took a swig of her coffee and shook her head disgustedly. "You know, that's ridiculous," she said. "Calling the cops don't do anything. I had the same thing happen to me. A couple boys tried to get in my van one time, and-"

Ruby heard the floorboards creak softly behind her, and she turned her head.

Laughing Jack stood in the doorway.

Ruby stood abruptly, bumping the table and dropping her coffee. The mug shattered on the floor.

"Jesus!" Melanie said.

Jack walked close and sat in the open chair beside Ruby.

"Stay put," he said when she made to move away.

"The hell's wrong with you?" Melanie said. Ruby looked from the clown to Melanie, who was scowling deeply at her. Melanie didn't seem to notice the seven-foot tall clown sitting in her kitchen, and didn't so much as bat an eye when he spoke again.

"You should clean that up," he said to Ruby.

"I-" Ruby struggle to vocalize. She looked back and forth from the clown to Melanie. Melanie finally flipped her hand dismissively and went to get a dish rag. Ruby stood rooted to the spot. Her hip flared with pain where she'd hit the table's edge.

"Here," Melanie said, stopping right in front of Jack to hand Ruby the rag. Jack giggled roughly as Ruby took the rag in her trembling hands.

"Barmpot," he teased.

Ruby didn't take her eyes off of him as she knelt to mop up the coffee, even when the wound on her leg stung and Melanie resumed talking to her. The knife was heavy in her coat pocket.

"So, you're still shaken up about all that, huh?" Melanie said, sitting back down. "Musta been scary as hell. You sure you can stay? Like I said, I don't get off 'til four."

Ruby began collecting shards of the mug. Jack winked and pushed a few of them in her direction with the tip of his shoe.

"Yeah," she said, still watching the clown. She stood carefully and tossed the pieces into the trashcan. "Yeah, I can stay."

"Sit down," Jack said when she lingered by the trashcan. Ruby hesitated until the clown's eyes began to go wide with temper.

"Okay," Melanie grumbled as Ruby slid stiffly back onto her chair beside Jack. "You takin' the boys back when you leave?"

"I don't know."

"No," said Jack.

"Well, you ought to," Melanie said. She pointed accusingly at Ruby. "My Emmy's been havin' nightmares, and that didn't start 'til the boys," she pointed in the direction of the living room, "got here. I think Zeke's been scarin' her."

Ruby struggled to keep her eyes on Melanie as Jack shifted to rest his ankle on his knee. He hummed "Pop! Goes the Weasel" loudly to himself.

"Yeah?" was all that Ruby could manage. Her gaze flicked to Jack, and the clown grinned mischievously at her.

"Yeah," Melanie said. She narrowed her eyes. "She keeps talkin' about a clown with sharp teeth. Now, she don't watch scary movies. I don't know what you let those boys do-"

Ruby jumped as Jack rested a hand on her thigh, his long fingers sliding round to encircle her whole limb. He grazed the side of his thumb gently over the cut he'd made this morning.

"Tell her you won't take the brats," he said, his deep voice carrying over Melanie's. "Otherwise, they could get hurt. You don't want that, do you?"

"- but I won't have any of that in my house. Kids shouldn't be-" Ruby cut Melanie off as Jack pressured his thumb lightly against the wound.

"I can't take them home," she said quickly. Melanie raised her non-existent eyebrows, then drew them down so hard that her eyes almost disappeared.

"Well, you got to," she said. "I can't keep feedin' two extra kids, and Emmy's wet the bed twice-"

Ruby bit back a cry as Jack pressed his thumb claw into the cut. A dark spot welled quickly around it, staining her jeans.

"I can't take them!" she shouted, stunning the other woman into silence. Jack stopped worming his claw into the cut, but left it hovering threateningly. "I'm sorry, but I can't. I just can't."

A long, quiet moment passed between them, and Jack let go of her leg to stand up. As he made to leave the room, he leaned down to her and whispered against her ear in a way that made all of her hair stand on end:

"Good girl."

Ruby took a deep breath, sweat beading on her brow as she listened to the clown's retreating footsteps. "I can't take them," she told Melanie again. "The person who broke in... He was in the boys' room when I woke up. I'm afraid he might-" her voice broke, and she had to pause. "I'm afraid he might hurt them," she finished in a whisper.

Melanie stayed quiet for a moment. "Well, I can't afford to keep 'em," she said.

"I can give you some money. I'll feed everybody tonight, too." Ruby stood up slowly, using the table for support and carefully shielding her now-bleeding leg from Melanie's view with her coat. Melanie stood up, too.

"Well," she said. She looked down at her coffee mug. "I guess that's all right. But tell Zeke to quit scarin' my girl."

Ruby agreed to have a talk with Zeke, and Melanie went about getting ready for work. The twins weren't in the living room, but Emmy was. She was eating dry cereal out of a cup when Ruby approached her.

"Hey, Emmy," she said, and the girl looked up. "Where did Zach and Zeke go?" Emmy blinked and turned her head toward the front door. Ruby took the hint and stepped outside.

Dark, dense clouds had swallowed the sky up again, and thunder rumbled ominously. Ruby scanned the weed-choked yard for the twins.

"Zeke!" she called. "Zach!" She waited on the porch for a moment, but got no answer. She struggled down the steps, hissing as her bleeding leg pulsed and ached, and limped a circle around the house. She wandered out near the old, rotting fence, and childish voices finally reached her.

"Boys?" she said, spotting two mops of red hair in the tall grass. One of the mops perked up, and she saw Zach's face. She picked her way through the grass.

"Hey, what're you doing?" she said. The boys were crouched down, clearly hiding. Ruby worriedly thought for a moment that they were hiding from Jack, and that she'd ratted them out.

"Go away," Zeke said acidly, and she blinked in surprise.

"Why?" she finally managed. "What's wrong?" She turned from Zeke to Zach, who was purposely staring at his little tennis shoes and pressing his lips together. She crouched down, despite the pain it caused, and moved close to him.

"Baby, what's wrong?" she pleaded, and Zach shifted away from her. He mumbled something, still avoiding looking at her. Zeke, however, gave her the nastiest glare she'd ever seen a child give to another person.

"We're not supposed to talk to you," he said, and Ruby frowned.

"Why not?" she asked, though she already had an idea.

"Because Laughing Jack said so." Zeke stopped pulling up dry grass clumps and glared at her again. He started to say something else, but then his eyes fell to Ruby's coat pocket.

He screamed.

Ruby raised her hands to protect herself as Zeke launched at her. He tore at her coat, and Ruby yelled at him to stop. The knife was in there, and-

"That's mine!" Zeke howled, clawing at a different pocket. Ruby held him back, struggling to keep him from swinging at her, and as they struggled something fell out of her pocket.

"No! That's mine! That's mine!"

Ruby squeezed Zeke to her, pinning his arms at his sides, and looked at the faded box that had fallen out of her coat. Her skin crawled.

"Mine!" Zeke wailed. He thrashed in Ruby's arms, trying desperately to hit her. Ruby held him until he tired himself out and started to cry.

"Did Jack give you the box?" she whispered to him. Zeke hiccuped, tears running down his freckled cheeks. He nodded miserably.

"What does the box mean?" Ruby asked desperately. She looked around herself, praying that Jack wasn't near. She couldn't see him, but, for all she knew, he was standing over them.

"He said -hic- I could live at the -hic- carnival…"

"Where's the carnival?"

Zeke sniveled. He shrugged his little shoulders, then shifted in her grip until he had his face pressed into her coat. Zach made a mournful sound, and Ruby realized that he was crying, too. He crawled over, and she gathered him into her arms alongside Zeke.

They sat like that until they heard Melanie's van chug to a start.

Lightning flashed as Ruby picked up the faded box and stuffed it into her pocket. She carried Zeke and held Zach's hand as they walked back around the house in time to wave at Melanie as she drove away.

Ruby waited until the van turned onto the country road before walking over to her own car. Emmy was standing on the porch with her cup of cereal, and Ruby ushered the boys to go stand with her. She took the faded box from her pocket, then positioned it carefully beneath the car.

Zeke sobbed as she crushed it under her back tire.


Miles away, in a rundown apartment, Laughing Jack stopped dressing a doll to turn his head and look out the window. His silver eyes widened, and the dirty-faced girl he was playing with stopped smiling and stared at him.

"What's wrong, Jack?" she asked. It was a long moment before he replied, somewhat gruffly:

"Nothing." He turned back to the game, clutching a blonde-headed girl doll in his dreadful claws. His playmate scooted closer to him and straightened his doll's hair with a tiny brush.

"It's okay," she said softly to him. "You can tell me secrets."

Jack ignored her and stared at the doll. His playmate had no toys of her own, and so he had fashioned these for her. The doll in his claws was a careful recreation of Ruby.

The little girl finished brushing the Ruby doll's hair and, on a whim, reached up to brush the clown's. As the tiny brush touched his hair, the change that came over him was instantaneous and horrifying; his white face twisted, his eyes flashed, and his black lips peeled back to expose all of his jagged teeth. The little girl fell backward with a shriek just as his jaws snapped shut, missing her hand by hardly an inch. She crawled quickly away from him and hid behind her bed, whimpering.

Jack bared his teeth and leaned forward on his wicked claws, watching her like a cat with a cornered mouse. It took him a moment to realize what he was doing, and he tried to play it off as a joke.

"Haha… Sorry, sugar. I was just playing. I didn't mean to scare you."

The little girl peered distrustfully at him, her eyes shiny with fear.

Jack sat back and picked up the Ruby doll again. He found the tiny hairbrush and held it out to the girl. "Here," he said soothingly. "I've mussed my doll's hair. Will you fix it for me?"

The girl shook her head, and Jack felt a pang of panic. He had just started to earn the child's trust.

"Oh, come now," he tried again. "I'm no good at fixing hair. See?" He shook his own mass of tangled, black locks, and the girl gave a soft giggle.

"Your hair is messy," she admitted.

He relaxed.

"It sure is," Jack said. He put the doll down to reach into his pocket and, pushing the faded box out of the way, produced a handful of colorful candies in paper wrappers. The girl saw them and crept back over to their spread of dolls.

"I wasn't really scared," she assured him, carefully taking several of the candies. "You're my friend." As she popped one in her mouth, Jack smiled, careful to not show his teeth.

"Of course I am, sweets."


I'm delving deeper into Jack's character, and I like where it's going. I'd love to read your thoughts. ;o}